The Vermont Delegation Mourns the Sanders Campaign

The Vermont delegation will be the last state in the roll call tonight at the Democratic National Convention, in Philadelphia.

Photograph by Philip Montgomery for The New Yorker

At times yesterday, the Democratic National Convention felt like it was as much about Bernie Sanders as it was about Hillary Clinton. The Sanders supporters were often more boisterous and unruly in their cheers and in their condemnations of the speakers. An observer in the Convention hall would find it easy to exaggerate their numbers and the depth of their disappointment, but over in the Vermont delegation the sense of defeat and ambivalence about Hillary Clinton runs deep. As the delegates gathered earlier this evening for the roll call of states, I spoke to three of Sanders’s home state’s twenty-six delegates, including Aster O’Leary, the eighteen-year-old Sanders supporter who was scheduled to announce Vermont’s tally during the roll call.

According to a deal worked out between the Clinton and Sanders campaigns, Vermont will be the last state in the roll call. All afternoon there were rumors that Sanders would come down to the Vermont delegation and speak as well. (Sanders did join the delegation and move that Clinton be selected as nominee.) When we talked, O’Leary was still uncertain about her role. “I don’t know all the details yet,” she said. The chair of the Vermont Democratic Party, Dottie Deans, interrupted our interview. “I need her right now!” Deans said, and O’Leary disappeared with her into the bowels of the arena.

Whatever the reason for making Vermont last in the roll-call order, it was an odd decision that underscored the lingering divisions between the two campaigns. “I’m warming up to the idea of rallying around Hillary,” O’Leary said.

Two of O’Leary’s fellow delegates were similarly reluctant to accept Clinton’s victory. “The hardest thing to do is to let go of that hope—that hope that is rooted in Bernie’s vision, Bernie’s message, Bernie’s effectiveness,” Brian Pine said. “His ability to connect to regular Americans is very unique, and it has taken the progressive movement to a place it never would have gotten. It’s hard to imagine he’ll ever be able to carry that mantle ever again at his age. That’s hard to accept. That’s a challenge, and that’s a personal journey that you’re on.”

Jo Sabel Courtney was even more distressed by her experience at the Convention. “So many of us are first-timers and were so excited and coming off of a high—the Bernie high,” she said. “I was, like, ‘Oh, nobody’s even got a sign for Bernie! He’s not even here. Bernie who?’ It was very clear that this was a party planned for Hillary. That was a little bit of a sinking for me. And a reality check.” She added, “For me it’s kind of painful.”

Sabel Courtney took some solace in finding Sanders fans in other delegations. “Sometimes you feel like you’re kind of alone. And then I see people with Bernie buttons on and I know how big this movement actually is,” she said. “I look for it. ‘Oh, it’s one of my tribe!’ And I’ve gotta get over that. That’s what this day is about—coming to terms with how I’m going to feel going forward again.”

She said she thought that Sanders himself was more politically pragmatic than many of his supporters. “I have a feeling Bernie is probably struggling with, ‘Folks, I’m not a god! I’m not your messiah!’ This is politics and he will tell us, ‘Grow up, this is how it works!’ ”

The divisions within the Democratic Party in 2016 are far different than in 2008. Back then, there were bitter feelings on both sides, but the policy differences between Clinton and Barack Obama were minor. Sanders and Clinton, by contrast, had substantial disagreements on trade, health care, college tuition, and foreign policy—and the primary campaign was a long exercise in Clinton moving closer to Sanders, rather than the other way around. This week, the Party approved a platform that was as much a product of the Sanders wing as of the Clinton wing.

Pine and Sabel Courtney took solace from those policy victories. “We won,” Sabel Courtney said. “And I have to keep reminding myself of that.”

She also said the fight isn’t over. Sanders’s troops will be policing Clinton’s actions. “If Hillary Clinton is elected President,” Sabel Courtney said, “she is going to feel the Bern, because her feet are going to be held to the fire.”

But she was not relishing the role Vermont would play tonight in ending a process that would make Clinton’s nomination official. “There will be tears from so many people,” she said. “You can’t help but choke.”

Ryan Lizza, an on-air contributor for CNN, was The New Yorker’s Washington correspondent from 2007-2017.